The original game in the long-running Breath of Fire series, released on the Super NES in April 1993 in Japan and August 1994 for North America. It was later ported out to the Game Boy Advance in July 2001 in Japan and December 2001 in Europe and North America, with updated Character Portraits, a dash button, graphical upgrades on the menu screen and a trade option between games (complete with a few new items as bonus).

Being the first game on the series, its story is not as ambitious as following sequels: Many years ago, the goddess Tyr (Myria) appeared on the world and staged a terrible war among the Dragon Clan for her own amusement, splitting it into two sides: the Light Dragons and the Dark Dragons. This carried on until a a warrior of the Light Dragons, together with 7 allies, sealed up the goddess using the six Goddess Keys.

Cut to many, many years after: The Dark Dragon Empire has grown in power, and under the leadership of their EmperorZog, they are waging war against the world while searching the keys to release Tyr. The Light Dragons are the first on Zog's hit-list, but they are saved from decimation by the sacrifice of their priest, Sara. Missing ever since, Sara's brother Ryu embarks on a quest to find her, while gathering allies who are all opposing the Dark Dragons' ambition.

One aspect who's well known about this game is the story behind its localization: At the time Capcom apparently didn't felt like translating such a heavy text-based game, so they handed localization and distribution duties to Squaresoft, with Ted Woolsey involved in the translation. This ensured a somewhat decent translation, albeit with random name changes that obscured connections with its sequels and some details regarding its story lost in the transition.

Always Night: The village of Bleak has the Dark Key of the Goddesses, which means their entire town is held in perpetual nighttime. Not that the thieves of Bleak seem to mind at all. In fact, once the Dark Key is taken from the Light Keep and the sun can once again rise on the village, the thieves all seem kind of depressed.

Broken Bridge: Everywhere! Literal cases includes the bridge following Tantar/Tuntar, the bridge on Guts and the small bridge before Scande. Other examples include a frozen waterfall and an underwater chasm.

The worst would have to be arriving at the Big Bad's lair, Scande...only to find that the one working elevator is broken. Mind you, the Dark Dragons can simply fly up to Zog's tower if they wish, but it's still conspicuous how they don't just fix it themselves.

Chain of Deals: Several instances through the game, particularly the Auria arc: You need a ship, and a rich man offers to let you use his if you can get his daughter out of a safe. The master thief who could open the lock is in the Impassable Desert, and someone who has the item needed to enter it wants a Gold Bar in exchange. After grinding and running conveniently placed sidequests for enough money to buy one, you cross the desert and find that the thief in question is in a dungeon surrounded by quicksand that can only be crossed with a magic flute, which the locals agree to give you after you resolve their problem with a monster. That resolves half of the chain...

Chekhov's Gunman: Two instances: the robed guy who keeps popping up to help the party is revealed to be Jade, helping you overthrow Zog, while in Tunlan the Nina look-alike ends up being Nina after time travel shenanigans.

Comic Book Adaptation: Two, under the subtitles The Dragon Warrior and Princess of The Wing. There's also an Spin-Off pseudo-sequel, Breath of Fire Part 2 Little Adventurer, which stars the children of Ryu/Nina and Bo.

Compressed Adaptation: The Dragon Warrior manga adaptation, which crams most of the game's main plot into 6 chapters, leaving out several events while meshing together others. Most notably, the existence of the Four Devas (Jade's Quirky Miniboss Squad) is mentioned, but only one out of the 4 (Mote/Sigmund) makes an actual appearance.

Disc One Nuke: The Earth Key can be used to deal 30 damage to all enemies once per turn. While insignificant later on, it out-damages your warriors when you first get it and can end most fights in one round.

Once you get Karn, you can get the Flame Rapier (a weapon for Nina) in the Winlan basement. Using it as an item will do 90 damage to a single enemy.

Doomed Hometown: Drogen (Dragnier), right in the prologue. Also a case of the Doom not actually hitting: while the town is majorly damaged in the prologue, it's still standing, and the residents survive.

Door to Before: Most early dungeons have these, only unlockable using a party member's skill, most of the time Karn's.

Dub Name Change: Mostly due to space restrictions and Square's handling of the translation. Only among main characters, we have Bo/Gilliam, Ox/Builder, Karn/Danc, Bleu/Deis, Gobi/Manillo, Cerl/Carla, Zog/Zorgon, Jade/Judas and Tyr/Myria. Most of the towns and enemies are also affected.

Dummied Out: Two notable examples include the Nanai Bar (who's off-limits during normal gameplay due to guards blocking off the entrance) and the DrWarp (a development item that allows transportation to any location on the game, including within cutscenes and unfinished areas).

Flying Seafood Special: At first they appear underwater, so it's not so rare...but when they start coming out on dry land, well...

The Goomba: Nine times out of ten, your first random battle from leaving Drogon at the beginning of the game will be up against a blue Slime with an HP of 12, and Ryu at Level 1 can defeat each Slime with one attack. Later on, the party may encounter a gold version of the Slime with ten times the HP. Although the P.Bugs have 8 HP, they are more annoying as they may poison a party member.

Guest Star Party Member: The two guards (later named Sieg and Rai) who escort Nina during her solo time, and the third one (Enon) who guides Ryu afterwards.

Guide Dang It: To get Ryu's dragon forms, there are certain items which are required. The game makes no effort in telling you which ones, let alone where they are.

Healer Signs On Early: While you have to go through Camlon castle and the dungeon of Nanai before you get a party member, the second party member that joins is Nina, who is the games best healer. An interesting twist happens in that she doesn't join the party at first: She is controlled by the player, and Ryu is removed.

HP to One/Chekhov's Skill: The Dragon Heart song that you learn in Tunlan is a song that damages dragons and reduces Ryu's HP to 1. It could be useful later. Like against Zog, or Sara.

I Am Not a Gun: The Stone Robot refuses the General's commands to destroy the village of Tantar (it had just destroyed Tantar's twin city Tuntar, but no one was in it at the time). After the General is defeated, the Stone Robot jumps into a volcano to prevent being used as a weapon ever again.

I Have Your Wife: The Dark Dragons kidnapped all women on Ox's hometown to force the men into building them a weapon.

Impossibly Cool Wealth: The town of Auria is literally paved with gold, due to its proximity to the Light Key.

Incredible Shrinking Man: Cort shrinks your entire party to the size of mice. Luckily, there are real mice in the area who are pleased to help Ryu.

Inn Security: Played with in Bleak's Inn. Being a town of thieves, it's rather suspicious that it's totally free. If you decide to stay, you'll wake up with your savings stolen. Buying an special item on Auria will catch the Inn owner on the act, who will pay you to avoid any further problems.

Invincible Hero: Agni makes any battle, up to and including the final boss, practically impossible to lose. The best strategy for the final boss is to cast the Agni transformation and then use Auto-Battle, only using a Cure if you run low on health.

Irrelevant Importance: You can't really dispose of any "key" item, even if those are totally useless afterwards.

You can deposit some of them in the bank, however, if you need to free some inventory space.

Mock Guffin: The anticlimatic 'Book of Thieves' hidden in Krypt's basement. The logic being: if he's made it that far, Karn is already the world's greatest thief, and therefore doesn't need a handbook.

Plot Coupon That Does Something: Out of the six Goddess Keys, only 3 can be used in-game: the Light and Dark Key switches daytime/nightime, and the Earth Key mimics an earthquake attack. The Time Key isn't usable in battle, but when Nina uses it, she undergoes her Plot-Relevant Age-Up.

Averted if you revisit the site of Cerl's "death"; you'll see that she and Alan have been reverted to childhood via Timey-Wimey Ball.

In The Dragon Warrior manga, Jade gets one as well, paired with a Together in Death with his lover Sara.

Sequence Breaking: After you get Karn, you can open any locked door. Warp back to Romero and head to Agua, and you can go higher up than you've ever gone before. Search the statues for a powerful dagger and suit of armor. You won't see other gear on this level until the endgame.

The Three Trials: There are three shrines where Ryu is put to a test before having his dragon forms unsealed. The fourth and final dragon form, interestingly, requires no such trial and is granted instantly.

Weaksauce Weakness: Though it doesn't seem to affect anyone else in the group, the 'Shock' spell will completely annihilate Ryu almost 100 percent of the time, unless he is protected from it by Wall (a spell Nina learns that reflects magic attacks). This extends even to his dragon forms

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